The Shot Heard Around The World
by Galacticlone
Summary: Purple's bright burning life is cut short by the merciless shot of an assassin, but when Red begins seeing a phantom to cope with his battered, grief-stricken psyche, he takes his deceased lover's advice and follows him home. (Requested RAPR mini-fic.)
1. Him

Hello and thanks for picking up this mini-fic! This was originally supposed to be a one-shot (with chapter 2 being the only chapter) but then it got a great reception and I had a request to add an epilogue (chapter 3). Then, I got a request to make this into an actual fic, so I added chapter 1! A little out of order here but oh well. So, I hope you enjoy this messed up piece. There will only be a total of 3 chapters, so with the addition of this one, it will be complete.

**TO THE REVIEWER LARRIMEME:** You got me again, love! Seriously, you're super cool and I love seeing your reviews on my stuff because you always give me good ideas! So, here you go! This has turned into a three chapter mini-fic of sadness and overwhelming depression…but also love. Have fun my friend! (ALSO THE LINK YOU POSTED FOR MY OTHER FIC WAS BROKEN AND I COULDN'T SEE YOUR GLORIOUS FANART BUT I STILL WOULD LOVE TO MOOH)

**Fic rated strong M for major character death, graphic depictions of violence, allusions to psychosis, allusions to severe depression, adult themes/sexual content, and suicide.**

* * *

"Ow! You hit me in the eye!"

"Hey, hey! Put your hands back up on the table! I wanna try again!"

Red reluctantly threw his hands back up in a makeshift goal on the table when Purple stripped the paper from his fourth straw, shoving it in his drink before balling up the wrapper and flicking it in his partner's direction, slumping back with a curse when he missed again.

"Man, do you think they'll bring me another one?" He pouted with a sneer when a waitress immediately spun on her heel and sped off in the other direction when they locked eyes.

Red returned his wavering attention to his dinner, glancing over Purple's shoulder to the Dooxisi Prime Minister eyeing them suspiciously with mounting disgust at the overwhelmingly childish games his partner always decided to play when they were out in public.

"No."

"Aw, why not? It's not like I'm wasting them or anything." Purple teased, grouping his straws together in his rum cocktail and shoving them all in his mouth as he laughed into the plastic, blowing ridiculous bubbles through the chilly alcohol.

Red bit his lip, trying to ignore Purple's complete lack of inhibitions as he cheerily embarrassed them both in an inebriated fog. "Stop it! You look stupid." He choked back a chuckle and felt it slip past his teeth, only adding fuel to the immature fire raging across from him. "That's your fourth daiquiri, Pur. Slow down. You get weird when you drink."

Purple dialed himself back with a hiccup and glanced down with a knowing smirk to Red's cheap, half-empty beer. "A bit hypocritical, huh? You'll never change, Red." He taunted casually, leaning further over the table with a wide, ill-defined grin. "So…you wanna ditch this place and go have some fun?"

Red blinked at the slur in Purple's voice, slightly taken aback as he glanced out the window of the flashy bar to the bizarre Meekrobian surface dotted with foliage of pure, unwavering light energy swaying gently in the cosmic wind. They had been called as the keynote speakers for the Intergalactic Board of Empires this year and Red had been more than reluctant to travel to Meekrob after the concerning mount in tension between their races. They weren't exactly on the same side anymore, getting in little spats here and there throughout the aether over idiotic natural gas siphoning claims with the Meekrobian people pointing their furious blame back on the Irken Empire when crucial powerplants were raided. Honestly, they weren't necessarily wrong. Purple had suggested it in the beginning, plotting through the dark across their candlelit baths and cozy winter mornings on Irk to take the planet in their name and utilize the nearly infinite source of energy pouring from the beneath the thin mantel. He wanted it and everyone in the universe knew he always got what he vied after, following closely at his authoritarian heels as he inconspicuously broke open the first wave of guerrilla warfare under the feelers of the Meekrob Empire, smiling sweetly and pleasantly during their keynote conference even when every general and officer in attendance stared back like they wanted to rip his PAK from his spine. That was just how Purple was…free-spirited, challenging, assertive. He was the smoldering liquor burning the throats of the lightweights of the universe, the overly candid critic slamming opinions unlike his own and tearing them to pitiful shreds, the gorgeous vision of flawless perfection that had captured Red's interest so many years ago.

"Come on, Red." Purple reached out and swiped an evocative, tempting touch over his partner's tarnished wedding ring with a low exhale, flushing from the delicious alcohol pounding through his bloodstream in the low, opaque light. "Our rental ship is out back. Don't tell me you'd rather hang out with these stiffs over me."

Red glanced to the side, briefly locking eyes with a stoic Meekrobian soldier who had been staring them down for nearly an hour, making his skin crawl with uneasy suspense as he ran his disturbing bug like eyes over the contents on their table with increasing ferocity. He seemed to grow twitchier with every frilly drink Purple pounded back, licking his mandibles and running his disgusting gaze over his lithe body as he laughed at Red's ridiculous jokes and ran his hands eagerly over his across the table. Red had noticed and shot the soldier a fiery warning glare a few times now to little avail, bristling as the ugly little thing continued to eye his partner like he was a delectable prize to be savored like candy. Ugh. Did he not know Purple was a married man? His odd, sticky tendrils curled and fluttered aimlessly in the air as he sucked at his meager excuse of a watered-down Mai Tai, peeling his peculiar, unsettling eyes away when Red frowned, irritated at his silent, but obvious, advances.

Anything to get away from that mind-numbing glare.

"Eh…sure." Red finally agreed, entwining his long fingers tenderly with his partner's and laughing when he practically fell out of his chair with a wild, intoxicated cackle, earning the annoyed attention of the whole bar as he stabilized his weak knees with a precarious hand against surface of their messy table. "Damn, Pur. I haven't seen you _this_ loose in a while."

Purple finally managed to throw an arm around Red's shoulder as they made their way to the door, pressing into his cheek with an expectant sigh when they finally stumbled out into the dreamy warmth of the Meekrob summer, met with a temperate wind that only drew them closer as they swayed in tandem.

"If you think this is loose," Purple breathed suggestively against his lover's skin with a long, sluggish blink, running his smooth palms up the back of Red's neck as he guided them on to their personal runner, "just wait until I get you in that pilot's seat."

Red had to force himself to keep moving against the stream of delicate, impassioned, sweet-nothings whispered against his antennae as Purple stumbled backwards, blundering over his own faltering vocabulary as he continued to unstitch Red with every sweltering vowel and syllable, leaning in and mouthing incoherent words against his flesh when he finally popped the main pearlescent hatch to their rental Meekrobian Runner. Delicate, eager hands fluttered up across his chest as Red was lowered willingly into the worn leather of the pilot's seat, laughing through the shifting weight of Purple slinging himself impatiently over his lap and reaching down between the console to recline the seat. Red yelped in surprise when they fell back with a sharp, sudden jerk, immediately forgetting his shock and grinning into the hungry, rum tinted lips moving against his as excited hands and flicking antennae explored swathes of milky, cologne spiced skin. It had been so long since they had done something like this; he felt young and treacherous, splaying their controversial marriage in front of the watchful eye of the winking security cameras dotting the far edge of the bar's roof. It was salacious, sensual, and incredibly erogenous, dragging Red back down into the dazzling memories of their slow, unsophisticated first time in the back of their office behind locked doors; hands clamped over heated, sensitive mouths to stifle telltale moans, Purple's unfocused, dream laden eyes longing for more friction as he sprawled back against their desk and thoughtlessly knocked aside readers and papers while Red took him.

There he was.

Crawling and inching through every fantastic memory oozing up from Red's PAK.

There he would _always_ be.

Red pulled away for air with a gasp, reaching out to close the hatch and swallowing when Purple grabbed him by the wrist, moving his lover's wandering touch to the collar of his uniform and helping him to slowly unlatch his heavy breastplate.

"Pur…the door." He mumbled immodestly, frozen in place by the beautiful, risqué sight of his husband leaning back against the hard dash and unhurriedly stripping, shucking armor to the passenger seat as he ground breathlessly against Red's hips. "Someone might-"

"Shut up." Purple slurred alluringly, staring down with half lidded eyes full of undeniable lust as he smiled softly. "Where's your sense of danger?" He leisurely worked off his wrist gauntlets and tossed them sloppily in the backseat, holding Red's trailing gaze as he reached down to dig his claws into his thighs. "Reminds me of our honeymoon. Remember when those hikers found us in our tent?"

Red ran a steady palm up his lover's taut stomach, feeling him stiffen and sigh amorously in response. "Yeah, well, I don't want a bunch of oblivious people coming around the corner and catching us like they did in the forest." He halfway joked, kneading lightly into his partner's ribs and enjoying the blithe sounds spilling from his lips when he moved lower. "I'd rather keep you to myself."

"Please, Red." Purple rolled his eyes sardonically and slammed a hot palm to the windshield for purchase when Red pushed up and pressed him back against the glass, attacking the sensitive nape of his neck with velvety, messy kisses and relishing in the tiny, blurry moans he was rewarded with. "Y-You and your stupid paranoia." He pushed Red back enough to search his face a few long, serene moments, massaging soothing circles into the firm guards of his shoulder blades. "You don't have to worry about that, baby. It's not like I'm ever going anywhere."

Red smiled through the tranquil night, drinking in that familiar, hallucinogenic scent he had come to crave over the years and succumbing to the exquisite rebelliousness of the moment. Of _their_ moment. This is where they were meant to be; together in each other's grip. This is where Red wanted Purple to stay for the rest of his life.

"I love you."

Purple opened his mouth to respond, eyes shooting wide in confusion when the sound of a slide cocking outside the door caught him off guard as he spun woozily on Red's lap, meeting the steely, ferocious stare of the unstable Meekrobian soldier from the bar as he forced the barrel up against his bare chest.

"This is for taking what belongs to my people, you imperialist Irken monster!"

Before Red had time to react, he pulled the trigger and detonated the searing, deafening plasma blast, rocketing his bewildered partner clear across the console and slamming his ragged body against the far hatch before screaming a rebel war cry into the shattered night and turning his vehement, bloodthirsty attention on Red. On instinct, he flew from the hatch, flattening his antennae in horrid shock as he ripped the still hot rifle from his enemy's gooey feelers and growled when it was smacked away against his will. The soldier emitted a high-pitched noise, piercing through the darkness as hundreds of other patrons flooded out onto the landing pad in a frenzied daze, screaming and crying out their lucid terror when he kicked Red back against the ship and knocked the wind from his heaving lungs. He scooped up the rifle and immediately realized he was surrounded, races from all over the cosmos turning blazing pistols and brandishing electric spears in his direction before he wavered, pulling the barrel away from between Red's wide crimson eyes and thrust it under his chin, silencing the hectic, horridly stupefied crowd as he blasted through his own skull and took the easy way out, collapsing to the ground in a heap of mangled flesh and fading, dizzying light energy.

Red couldn't hear against the booming ring in his blown out antennae, trying to stand and immediately collapsing back down to the hard ground in a daze as he stared through the racing throng. What? W-What…where did that guy come from? Why? What did he say? Something….s-something about taking things from his planet…? Did he mean the natural gas or Purple's guerrilla warfare?

Huh?

Wait…Purple?

No.

Red felt himself choke when he flew to his feet and his terrified senses flooded back in dreadful clarity, throwing himself into the cab of their ship when Purple wheezed and sputtered feebly against the glass of the far window, soaked in a mind-bending mix of sweat and his own bright pink blood oozing lazily down his chest from the massive, body raking trauma of the damming blast.

"Pur? P-Pur?!" Red scrambled over the seat to grab at his trembling shoulders, panicking when he slumped limply forward with a thick gag of a cough, struggling to breathe against the burn of blistering plasma eating away at what was left of his corroded windpipe.

An Inquisitorian guard popped up behind Red, helping to heave the flaccid body of his blood-stained husband from the ship as he choked and writhed weakly against the indescribable agony, clawing pathetically at his throat for air that wouldn't come when Red collapsed in horror to his knees and cradled him to his chest.

"Medic! S-Someone find a medic!" He cried frantically when Purple locked eyes with him and forced him to hold his terrifying stare. For the first time since his time in the war, Red saw genuine, unabridged, brutal terror flashing behind his partner's dulling ocular lenses, blinding him to anything but the blue tint slowly overtaking his paling form.

Red could feel him slipping, shivering violently in his grip as he slowly suffocated, his PAK alight with screaming out lethal warnings as his threadbare oxygen flooded from every cell in his body and his frantic hands slowed, instead reaching up to shakily run a bitter, knowing touch over Red's cheek to groggily comfort him through his fading cognition.

"Please! Fuck, please…please….just….please, Purple…please…." Red wailed on a trembling, heartbreaking loop as his shoulders were wracked with sob after thick sob, squeezing his partner's blood-soaked fingers in his as he rocked. "S-Someone find a fucking medic! Now!"

A few Vortian advisors tore off in the opposite direction to call for help when Purple used the last of his rapidly waning strength to woozily slide an unsteady finger to Red's tear stained lips, giving him a slow blink as he hushed him. Red pulled back, eyes alight with Irk-shattering agony and overpowering anguish when Purple's hands finally fell away and landed tranquility in his gory lap. Every muscle in his unyielding body sighed in peaceful relief and went slack, the last traces of beautiful, dynamic color draining from his face to pool against the cruel ground. The very spark, the ingenious, bottomless look of pure adoration in his violet eyes clouded and stilled to a permanent stop, flooding away through the ethereal stratosphere like a wisp of a soul so precious…so immensely unique to this universe that it could no longer contain that vibrant spark before he combusted into nothing.

He was gone.

All Red could do was scream. Hands landed on his shoulders as he was forcibly ripped away from the lifeless shell that once contained his stunning starlight, his entire world and the other half of his once lonely, decrepid life. The medics arrived too late, blazing sirens piercing overstimulated antennae as fat tears stained bloody armor and knees buckled in the grip of soldiers attempting to qualm the dreaded shock of fathomless grief and loss ripping through Red's obliterated heart. There was no pulse, no flicker of life left in that eerily still chest as he was rolled from his side onto his back and shrouded in a dark sheet; a veil for the brightest star now beating down on Red's destroyed consciousness from the magnificent magenta sky streaking above him. He would never love again; drowning to the heavy realization that everything he was had been stripped away through his long fingers by a single gunshot. They would never be again...never touch again...never kiss again or wake up together in the morning. His husband was dead.

He was nothing…nothing.

Nothing without that heartwarming laugh.

Nothing without the fickle arguments he had taken for granted.

Nothing without the profound devotion of that loving touch gone cold.

He was lost…lost to a single shot that was heard around the world.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this awful mess I created! Larrimeme and the wonderfully demented guest who requested this, I hope you enjoyed this mini-fic!


	2. Me

**Psychosis (for those who don't know):** "a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality." Includes audio/visual hallucinations, delusional thinking, incomprehensible speech, and disturbances of daily patterns.

**Rated a STRONG M for major character death, obvious allusions to psychosis, allusions to severe depression, and suicide. Not fluff…not fluff in the slightest. Proceed at your own risk.**

Suicide is never the answer. If you need help, there are suicide prevention hotlines available around the world that are easy to find just by googling. Reach out to someone safe and keep strong like the beautiful, powerful individual I know you are. You ARE worth it. If no one else will tell you that right now, let me tell you that.

* * *

There it was. The shot heard around the world.

There was no way to forget it. It played again and again and again on a sadistic loop over every damming, bright transmission screen in the star system. There _he_ was, mocking, staring, eating away at Red's soul and paper-thin judgement with those profound amethyst eyes full of terror as he sputtered and choked on the searing, white hot plasma shot that ate a hole through his chest and burned up into his throat as he sputtered and suffocated in the arms of his wailing partner.

There he was.

There…there he would _always_ be.

Red had been allowed to venture in first on his own and had been given as much time as he needed to sit in silence with the lifeless, unmoving body of his co-Tallest laid carefully out on an autopsy table and shrouded with a thin, immodest sheet. His personal advisory team had thought against it, but Red had merely pushed past in a vacant fugue, immediately locking the door to the mortuary behind him before he pressed his forehead against the frosty metal of the hatch and broke down and cried. He couldn't turn around. He…he couldn't. When he did, it would be real; warm fingers pressed against icy hands bitten by the unloving, bitter touch of stiff rigor mortis. Once vibrant, intelligent eyes full of mischievous longing now flat and expressionless behind heavy, serene eyelids that would never open. There was no sound. No comforting rise and fall of the smooth chest Red had kissed his way down more times than he could count as his beautiful lover giggled underneath him, no more falling asleep at his partner's side to the magnificent, soothing thump of his soft pulse radiating tenderly over his antennae.

_Idiot, are you really going to keep me waiting?_

Red's raw eyes flew open as his tears froze on his cheeks, the ghost of an unnerving, visceral, exquisite sound wafting through the air and slicing away the stench of medical supplies and stale blood. Huh? Was it…was it true? Had he just heard what he thought he heard? Slowly he held his shaky breath and turned, heels resounding against the pristine floor as he locked eyes with a peculiar sight that broke him to the core and shattered any remaining hold over reality he halfheartedly clutched at.

_Hey, asshole. I look pretty gross when I'm dead, huh?_

"P-Pur?" Red managed to strangle out under his stifled breath, meeting the gaze of the wraithlike image standing over his lifeless lover with a soft, ethereal smile and nearly dropping to his knees to bawl when he returned it. No. How? Purple was dead. Purple was assassinated by a Meekrobian sniper at the Intergalactic Board of Empires. This…he…no! There was no way!

N-No…no way.

The shaky visage threw his head back and gave a warm, silent laugh as Red pressed his back to the door, digging his trembling fingers into the hard metal as his deceased lover strode in slow motion around the autopsy table, long robes fluttering peacefully behind him as he danced beautifully in a formless breeze. Red shied away out of terror when he reached out with a slow, leisure blink, parting his perfect lips to lean in and brush against his tear stained cheek and dig away at his partner's unbearable grief with his sweet breath. Red let his eyes flutter shut with another agonizing sob, feeling a tender thumb graze over his skin to wipe away the horrible, salty tears he couldn't contain in his broken heart. He could almost feel those familiar hands as they massaged blithely into his chapped skin, cupping him lightly under the jaw in the way Purple always did before they would sleep, reminding him bitterly of what was past and now growing stagnant in his uncertain future.

"W-What are you?" Red shivered in the sub-zero temperatures, eyes snapping open when he felt the fleeting touch pull away too soon, leaving him numb and detached from the world he was desperate to get away from.

_I'm home._

Red panicked when the image began to sluggishly stride backwards, arms outstretched with a delicate, almost worshipping grin as if to beckon him to follow to some place unknown to the physical world he was slowly growing to hate. Red cried out stumbled after his partner as he climbed up onto the table and sunk back down into his quiet, unresponsive form and out of sight, leaving him with only the sweet, lingering scent of Purple's rich honied cologne.

"No! No, please!" Red sobbed violently, throwing himself down over the motionless body of his lover as the lock closing him off from the outside world was overridden by the keypad outside, guards flooding in and wrapping heavy hands around his shoulders as his broken mind struggled through reality and took over his body. "No! I'm ordering you to let me go! I-I can't lose him again! You don't understand, he was here! H-He was here!"

_Come back to me, love. Come home and be with me forever._

* * *

Red had thrashed, fought, kicked, and bit his captors into submission when they halfway shoved him into his private quarters to calm down from his violent outburst, locking him away from the prying eyes of the public as he cried and slumped to the floor against the hatch. He dug his palms into his face when he realized how far he was slowly slipping through his own fingers and into the bottomless pit of hell he was struggling to climb out of. This wasn't like him. He was strong, stable, reliable. He was the formidable head of the Irken Empire, not the shattered mirror of an unraveling psyche leaking to the floor in pools. Yeah…he was imagining things. It was all the grief…all the painful process he would be forced to endure until he could dully move on and obediently rule without his lover by his side. That's why the Control Brains had chosen two Tallest after all; these weren't peaceful times anymore and they had known that going into the job. It was only a matter of time before one of them was taken by the callousness of the very dictatorship they had built.

What they didn't know was that they would end up falling for one another.

It was subtle at first and barely there, amorous glances across the bridge and little, well placed snickers at jokes the other knew weren't funny but laughed at regardless. Fleeting hands would brush on purposeful accident, soft shoulders would press together in false fear at the myriad of horror movies they would watch merely as an excuse to touch, feet would shuffle awkwardly and linger at the door when curfew was called for the night. Then came the drunken 'slip up' of a kiss at the end of the year party, rocketing them into a new chapter they so willingly dipped their toes into, shivering at the delectable beauty of the tidepool they waded through hand in hand. When the morning came and Purple reached over the bar they had been laughing at until first light, Red knew it had been no accident. Things heated up until all they could see was the lustful temptation of physical pleasure and the rush of sneaking off to one another's quarters at dastardly hours of the night for an intimate satisfaction they couldn't seem to find anywhere else. It was ravenous, but cooled slowly with age, turning to a tender, infinitely deep ache to be closer than lovers and dive into the profound pool of partnership that illuminated their future like a bright burning star. They were supposed to be forever, promised to one another through the weighty, gorgeous sanctity of marriage; a proposal so sweet and beautiful Red could almost hear Purple's excited screaming in his mind as he threw his arms around his thrilled fiancé and practically choked the life out of him. He was always so childish and immature, an innocence Red hadn't known he truly appreciated until he was gone.

He was gone.

And yet, still, there he was.

Red had forced himself up on unstable feet, trudging erratically across the floor to the cleansing room where he shucked his armor carelessly to the floor and stared blankly into the mirror, running his once authoritative gaze over the now wretched, fractured Irken staring back at him. He was nothing without Purple. They were two halves of the same coin, a single beating pulse dancing in tandem through an unforgiving, ruthless cosmos that was supposed to be theirs until the end of their days when they would be tranquilly deactivated together. Red held his breath and clamped an unsteady hand over his mouth as he choked, slumping down over the counter as he attempted to reel himself back in and hold it together for the good of the Empire. T-the Empire came first…right? Did he even know anymore? Was it even his to command? Nothing made any sense as his mind swam with too many dire questions and not enough feeble answers, his skin prickling to the disturbingly warm texture of the of the searing lights beating down on him from above. Had everything always been this excruciatingly bright?

_You get all flushed when you cry, you know. It's cute._

Red shook the muffled voice from his mind as the room began to spin and contort and he gave a few bleary, unfocused blinks, sluggishly returning his gaze to the mirror and once again locking eyes with his long-lost husband smiling back at him from beyond the grave. Why? Why was the universe torturing him like this and breaking him over and over until he was nothing more than…he didn't even know what he was anymore. He had become inirken, something wholly lost to the physical and drifting in between fictitious worlds that he wasn't sure actually existed. He swallowed thickly and braced himself against the counter, timidly glancing over his shoulder and feeling his mind-bending anxiety spike when he saw nothing, refusing to look back up to the false memory reaching out to sling his arms around Red's trembling shoulders. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, watching as Purple ran his soft cheek alongside his and trailed his long fingers down his bare chest as he purred and hummed against his balmy skin.

_Come home to me, Red._

Red couldn't help himself, succumbing to the disoriented, hopeless ache in his PAK as he slid back down to the floor and cried, leaning against the cool cabinet as he broke out in a furious sweat at the pathetic, but infinitely gorgeous, images his battered mind plagued him with.

"You're not real…you're not him." He mumbled disconnectedly through his vicious tears, drawing his knees into his chest and burying his face into himself as he choked. "He's gone. He's-"

_You talk too much. I'm right here. Don't you see me?_

Red forced himself up as he clenched his teeth, furiously flipping off the light to the cleansing room and slamming the door with a wrathful shout, screaming irately at the door and clenching his fists as he tore across the room, chucking everything he could possibly find at the hatch. Readers, pillows, blankets, communicators, boots. None of it mattered. It was all material nonsense, a symbol of his affluence and opulent status gone sour without the domineering hand of his other half.

"Get out of my head!" He wailed, shattering one of Purple's favorite mugs against the now dented metal, watching the cold coffee he had left behind from the previous morning splatter violently over the magenta walls, finally coming to and taking a deep breath as the same question wafted back through his bruised thoughts.

_Are you coming home or not?_

"Please, Pur...I-I…I don't understand what that means." Red breathed miserably, watching as the perfect apparition of his lover strode unperturbedly through the closed hatch to meet him, wrapping him in an infinitely loving embrace that soothed his frayed nerves, breathing an eerie life back into his worn-out soul.

_You're still so thick. It means I love you, dork._

"I-I love you too." Red wept feebly, folding and buckling onto the edge of his bed as Purple followed him down with a gentle smile, looking leisurely to the small nightstand he had bought Red for their anniversary two years ago and tutting his tongue softly at the secret contents they both knew were waiting there like an old friend. He leaned in, closing the ocean of a gap between them and planted a soft, haunting kiss to Red's shivering lips, smirking against him when he returned the gesture with a passion so untamed and raw that it almost pushed him over the edge and into the oblivion he was precariously dangling above.

_Come home, Red. I'm lonely without you._

Suddenly, Red felt unnaturally weightless; the terror, the agonizing suffering, falling away from his form as the horrific truth of the beautiful comment sunk in and took away any remaining trace of doubt still lingering in the back of his mind. It ate at him, scratching its way through every muscle, every fiber of every cell buzzing and screaming through his body into that glorious, heartfelt touch he needed to breathe.

Home.

Those soft hands were home.

Those wide, curious eyes were home.

That loud, commanding voice was home.

When Red slowly opened his eyes, Purple was gone, faded to the pitiless atmosphere like the wisp of untamable smoke he had been in life. He had been looking at something, urging Red on to finish what hung in his thoughts from the very beginning of his lover's tragic death.

Ok.

Red finally understood. He took a deep breath and moved across the bed they had once shared to the nightstand, hesitating and letting his fingers graze the sharp edge of the handle as he thought. No. He had to go home. He had to see him again; had to never let him go from his strong arms as they strode away from this awful place with their fingers entwined and went on to a better existence together. The Empire didn't matter anymore. The fame and the wealth and the status didn't matter. None of it was worth it if he couldn't sit alongside that cheesy grin and dance with his hands on that incredible waist he could almost feel under his touch, sighing at the picturesque memory he would soon know once more.

There he was.

Red smiled to himself through his sticky tears and tugged the top drawer open, sliding his palm back until he landed on something cold and smooth, chuckling when Purple reappeared and wrapped his tender arms up around his chest to plant reassuring kisses to the back of his neck.

_It's beautiful here, baby. You'll like it._

"You think so?" Red mused nervously, letting his eyes flutter shut at the reassuring cock of a heavy slide clicking in his hand. "What's it like, Pur?"

_There's no more pain, no more heartbreak, and we can eat whatever we want. _

Red swallowed, feeling his breath catch at the bizarre sensation of a heating plasma barrel against his sensitive temple. "N-no…I mean…" He leaned back with a low exhale as another kiss landed against the tender nape of his neck.

_Oh…It's easy. Like falling asleep._

"Promise?"

_Would I lie to you?_

Red allowed himself another tiny chuckle at the sarcasm in his lover's chipper voice, warmed by his husband's soothing breath fighting away the ferocious demons afflicting his thoughts as he nodded and moved his finger to the trigger he had become so intimately familiar with over the years.

"I'm coming home, Purple. I'm coming home."

There were no more doubts, no more fears, no more qualms or hot tears to cry. Just the hollow, telltale ring of another shot heard around the world.


	3. Us

Ok, so someone mentioned they wanted a reunion in the afterlife, so I wanted to do it even if it's incredibly short. I just wanted to challenge myself to not do something sad for once. You welcome love!

* * *

Deaf.

Blind.

Formless, colorless, odorless…_fearless_.

Where? Where was this place? Why was it soft? Why…why was it warm and balmy? Was that a breeze or the ghost of a shuddering last breath exhaled under the emergency lights of the med bay? Was he drowning in a peaceful mist or being revived by atmosphere forced into his lungs by a chilly respirator? There were so many hands…so many hysterical wires hooked to frozen flesh and screaming voices working tirelessly to soothe his aching soul as his consciousness lapsed a final time.

_Let go, Red. It's time to come home_.

Let go? Let go of what? Of...of where?

_Here. Let me take you away with me._

All at once, he understood with strange clarity, allowing his dull crimson eyes to flicker open as he exhaled the weight of the world from his weary, battered shoulders.

Where…was he?

Sounds faded, shrieking fazed out of reality to be replaced with tranquil white noise and the hum of breathtaking, peaceful music from afar, the searing heat of the lamp hovering gloomily over the operating table died away to a tepid, gorgeous glow that warmed his chilled bones and brought him to smile.

There was nothing and then there was everything.

_Do you hear the music? We danced to this stupid song at our wedding. Remember?_

Yeah…that voice. That exquisite, comfortable, Irk-shattering laugh he missed more than he missed the surface of their home planet. It resounded from nowhere but boomed through every crevice and corner in Red's hazy mind like a slow substitute for a heartbeat as he took a tentative step into the swirling oblivion peacefully ushering him on. Red blinked, leisurely walking on to wherever that tone and those mellow, lilting strums led him, wherever those gentle snickers pulled him on like an invisible tether around his wrist. He reached up, running a placid palm over his temple and grinning tenderly at the perfectly formed skin beneath his fingertips. He was whole again, stitched back together by the profound starlight gradually illuminating in waves and splashes of deep magenta and glittering cerulean above his wide eyes.

_That's it…You're so close. I can see you…you're beautiful._

With every step Red took, the universe revealed itself in striking detail; long-tailed comets lulled lazily through the ether and massive behemoths of gas giants hissed in the distance as they floated on along peaceful orbits. He had never realized how gorgeous their star system was, how unique every undisturbed world and every richly shining star was as the light bounced and cascaded like a temperate waterfall through his chest and warmed him to his toes. Stunning…ancient…ethereal. The mist flooded away in slow motion, shrinking back and curling around his ankles as if to say a final, blissful goodbye and shepherd him on to the boisterous voice calling out to him like a song. The ground fell away in pieces until all that remained was the intense color of the Irken Nebula embracing him like the mother he was never allowed to have and slathering his tinted cheeks with a faint dusting of eddying cosmic hues. He let his arms fall to his sides, suspended in the incredible rawness of philosophical passion washing over him like the calm waves of the rolling Irken ocean.

What was this place?

Was this…the Beyond?

Red had never believed in anything outside of the dreary physical he had learned to call home. It went against science and logic and he had always laughed in the face of those who claimed to have tasted the sweet nectar of the cosmos beyond what their feeble minds could comprehend. How wrong he had been, locking eyes with the burning shades cast alight above him and hushing the awful pain, the heartless sting of loss that had consumed him mere minutes before.

_Close your eyes for me, baby. I'm almost there._

Red nodded slowly, letting his renewed eyelids slowly close as an undeniable peace came over him and made him shudder with soft anticipation. Light danced behind his eyelids, feeling his gentle breath catch when the warm touch of familiar fingertips grazed over his thin collarbone and trailed up to rest soothingly on his jaw.

"Count down from ten." A kind-hearted whisper flooded over his antennae as soft, amorous lips brushed his, moving ever so slightly against his uneven smile as a single tear threatened to cascade down his cheek. "Then you'll be mine forever."

_Ten._

An explosion of vivid color shrinking away as a gentle breeze pulled them down through darkening, unseen wells, drinking in curling toes and purring over shivering shoulders.

_Nine._

"You'll love it. We have the house we always dreamed of at the edge of the forest from that magazine you like. There's no one to tell us what to do or who to be anymore…Just you and me, Red."

"We...have a house?"

"Mhm. We have our own bed, and our own Spittle Runner, and our own little kitchen overlooking the wild. It's perfect."

_Eight._

Was this a dream?

Long limbs entangled and gentle fingers entwined in an infinitely loving embrace as otherworldly liquid filled tattered lungs and soothed the last traces of agony away forever. It was cooling yet warming, washing away the filthy grime and karma of the physical world in preparation for their infinite, gorgeous, forever.

"I can hear you. It's not a dream, baby. I'm here, and I'm never leaving you again."

_Seven._

"Where are we going, Pur?" Red asked again, airy confusion setting in as tiny bubbles curled from his lips, slowly peeking and losing himself to those deep, stunning violet orbs he never thought he would see again, breaking down in another round of soft crying when his husband blinked and smiled back softly at his sweet ignorance. He reached between them and pressed a fleeting finger to his lips, hushing him before leaning in to exorcise his demons with his mouth, stripping away years of fear and heartache in exchange for the new start he so desperately needed.

_Six._

Liquid rushed away to be replaced by the temperate rustling of foliage and the musky smell of the Irken wilderness Red craved more than anything, mixing with the luscious scent of Purple's expensive cologne he would always douse himself in when he got ready in the morning. Glorious...absolute, unbridled perfection he could almost taste upon the tip of his tongue. His husband laughed when their shaky feet finally reconnected with the spongy ground, the beauty of virgin, untamed vines curling up to meet them from within swaying trunks and whistling grass.

"I told you, idiot. We're going home."

_Five._

Pale flowers bloomed in the mauve starlight and wafted through the wind when Purple took his hand, guiding him through each luxurious step as he ran soothing circles over his palms. It was a dream..._He_ was a dream; Purple swaying and moving on light feet as he tugged Red on towards their future, never once breaking their generous, tender eye contact that set both of their once fractured souls alight against each other's touch.

_Four._

"How? Is this even real? You…you're dead. _I'm_ dead."

A small outpost lingered at the bottom of a gently sloping hill, pumping out the saccharine scent of molten sugar and crisp, mouth-watering pastries as Irkens of all ages and heights mingled together in the pristine village square; perfect smiles and perfect limbs dancing with one another as affectionate touches grazed arms and spread over blown wide hands. No one cried here. No one bled here. There was no sickness, no heartache, no loss or agony. Only warmhearted friendship and fellowship set deep in stone for eternities to come.

_Three._

"We're not dead. We're _alive_." Purple planted a soft kiss to his lips before dragging him down the hill in a fit of childish giggles, twirling Red as they danced along through the swaying grass, fingers digging into perfect waists and eyes alight with the joyous need to be closer and to never let go again. They laughed against each other's skin, compassionate kisses and claws tracing down cheekbones as the music of the universe soothed and pushed their lifeless chests together. There was no heartbeat, no erratic, horrified pulse to snuff out.

Never again.

There were only the Irkens underneath...the souls that cannot be tamed by the wills of the physical or the torture of the perceived realness of the world. No. There was only love, only devotion, only each other.

_Two._

"So…we're…this is…"

Cheers resounded as the pristine crowd came to meet them, running wistfully in slow motion as their elegant voices and welcoming arms drew them back into a joint embrace; long lost faces of soldiers gone astray to the violent horrors of war and bloodshed, the wide expectant eyes of Miyuki dancing in the light as she fell in to the left, the tentative grin of Spork piercing through the radiance as he trudged along to the right. Affectionate words ran together, blending into the light cascading over each of them as Red blinked, catching sight of their breathtaking, gorgeous home fluttering to life before his wide eyes as he grinned and wrapped a hand around his husband's waist, feeling his warm flesh through his robes and sighing when he felt Purple's hand wrap around his and grin in return.

"You mean we're finally…"

_One._

"Yeah...Welcome home, Red."


End file.
